My experience of Roma was initially similar to my experience of Paris – thought it was really dirty and bordering on horrible before getting into the old city and being blown away.
We were too late and too honest to either line up the 3hrs or jump the queue to the Vatican Museum (which includes the Sistine Chapel), so we went to see St Peter’s Cathedral.
St Peter’s is great. The line-up wasn’t that long and it was free to come in and see the entire main area. Inside many great pictures adorn the walls, the roof is lined with golden flowers (no two the same), and there’s a great big monument/altar thing in the middle that is kind of imposing but easy to appreciate and admire.
Two things really stood out about St Peter’s to me. One is how amazingly huge it actually is while at the same time only looking fairly big. In the photo here check out the people at the bottom. See the lower line of writing? Those letters are 2m high according to a tour guide we overheard. It’s easy to see the magnitude of its size from the photo, but when you’re there it all looks so nicely proportioned that your mind considers it cosier than it really is.
The second thing that got me about St Peter’s is that there is not a single painting in the whole cathedral. There are huge pictures on almost every wall, high and low, but every one of them is an intricate mosaic. And they’re amazing – stand a couple of metres back from the rail in front of them and you’d swear they’re painted, but if you lean over the railing you can see they’re actually made up of tiny pieces of coloured rock. It really is astonishing and adds to the overall impression I had of the cathedral: that everything in it is even greater than what you first realise. I think that’s a great sentiment for a church.
Top Deck Coach
Venice -> St Johan, Austria
We were too late and too honest to either line up the 3hrs or jump the queue to the Vatican Museum (which includes the Sistine Chapel), so we went to see St Peter’s Cathedral.
St Peter’s is great. The line-up wasn’t that long and it was free to come in and see the entire main area. Inside many great pictures adorn the walls, the roof is lined with golden flowers (no two the same), and there’s a great big monument/altar thing in the middle that is kind of imposing but easy to appreciate and admire.
Two things really stood out about St Peter’s to me. One is how amazingly huge it actually is while at the same time only looking fairly big. In the photo here check out the people at the bottom. See the lower line of writing? Those letters are 2m high according to a tour guide we overheard. It’s easy to see the magnitude of its size from the photo, but when you’re there it all looks so nicely proportioned that your mind considers it cosier than it really is.
The second thing that got me about St Peter’s is that there is not a single painting in the whole cathedral. There are huge pictures on almost every wall, high and low, but every one of them is an intricate mosaic. And they’re amazing – stand a couple of metres back from the rail in front of them and you’d swear they’re painted, but if you lean over the railing you can see they’re actually made up of tiny pieces of coloured rock. It really is astonishing and adds to the overall impression I had of the cathedral: that everything in it is even greater than what you first realise. I think that’s a great sentiment for a church.
Top Deck Coach
Venice -> St Johan, Austria
posted by Tim at 8:00 am
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